Most prepared man in Britain? Passenger's fantastic journey to reach baby goddaughter in France as Heathrow closes

21 March 2025, 10:08 | Updated: 21 March 2025, 10:46

The most prepared man in Britain? Caller Edgar's fantastic journey to beat Heathrow chaos

Is this the most prepared man in Britain? An intrepid passenger embarked on a fantastic journey to reach France to meet his new baby goddaughter after Heathrow closed.

Edgar, who lives near the airport in west London, told LBC that he woke up and realised that there was a power cut - which has caused the closure of Heathrow for all of Friday at least.

He reported the power cut and realised that there would be no flights on Friday, which could have proved a huge problem for his trip to Paris to meet the newest member of his family.

Thinking quickly, he booked a ferry ticket to get to France, realising that Eurostar would likely be extremely busy because of the flight cancellations.

Edgar also put his spare car seats on a service that enables drivers to hire out spaces in their vehicle when they make a trip.

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Fire rages at Hayes electrical substation

These quickly filled up, meaning he would be "offsetting carbon, sharing the ride [with] people to talk with."

He added that he had "three very happy people that were able to get in the car because there's nothing... I think Eurostar is going to be crazy as well. All the people trying to get across."

Asked why he was so determined to get to Paris, Edgar said: "My cousin just had a baby, so... I want to make sure I'm there."

The fire at the Hayes substation in west London has caused the cancellation of more than 1,300 flights to and from Heathrow Airport.

Thousands of homes have been left without power and more than 100 people were evacuated after a transformer within the North Hyde electrical substation caught fire in west London.

The airport, which is supplied by the substation, said it was among those impacted by the power outage.

Online flight tracking service FlightRadar24 said the closure would affect at least 1,351 flights to and from Heathrow.

It said 120 flights to the airport were in the air when the closure was announced.

Heathrow is the UK's largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024.